


A pillar I am of pride

by JawwnRC



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Detectives, M/M, Mutual Pining, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 01:58:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19780903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JawwnRC/pseuds/JawwnRC
Summary: “We were quite surprised to see you, Gabriel, most of us here haven’t had the chance to see a living angel in person. There were never that many around Indianapolis, and unfortunately, these past few months the numbers have been diminishing.” Jack felt disgusted speaking like that, but there was procedure and he didn’t want to upset the angel even more.“And why is that?”Jack gave him ran his fingers through his hair, it was better for him to be upfront, even if he knew this wasn’t going to go well. “There has been an attacker, whoever they are their target seems to be angels. I’m sorry, but there haven’t been any survivors from this attacks. We can assure you we’ve been doing our best to catch the perpetrator.”Fic for the 2019 Reaper76 Reverse Big Bang





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my work for the 2019 Reaper76 Reverse Big bang, based on the art and concept of [Giza](https://gartblog.tumblr.com), I'm really to have been able to work with them for this one. Clearly all the art in the fic is by them  
> Also you can the sibling fic by [ PlumeriaFairy14](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777540)
> 
> Anyone this baby was very much a hard one, but im proud of it? i hope i was able to do both the art and this amazing ship justice. I'd like to give a quick thanks to Ryxl for having helped me with beta work.

Jack could barely breathe, his ribs hurt and he was sure that the wound on his leg needed urgent care. He should have known things wouldn’t go smoothly; this whole mission was faded to fail. Why didn’t he see it before today? He had gotten too distracted with Gabriel, acted like the world wasn’t crumbling around him. Now, he was laying on the cement floor about to fucking die because he couldn’t focus on his job. His gun was lying just out of his reach taunting him in the darkness.

He heard the clicking of the killer’s heels as she walked around the place, seemingly bored. Her voice breaking the uncomfortable silence, though at this point he would have preferred the silence. “He should be arriving soon, I left quite an obvious trail at least for his kind.” She stated things so matter of factly and he was disturbed by how inhuman it sounded. “It is quite a novelty thing, to love someone else. Too bad it will destroy your angel.” He looked up at her to see she her eyes focused on the windows, her expression had almost a tinge of sorrow behind all the numbness.

Jack knew shouldn’t rise up to such a clear bait like this, yet he did. “He is not coming, he wouldn’t do something so foolish.” He wanted, no, he needed to believe in those words if only because it would mean Gabriel would be safe from all this, at least for a while longer. Though part of him knew that things had changed during the time they shared, but he hoped against hope that not enough so Gabriel would come to this obvious trap.

He heard a sound from her that was almost like a laughter though as most things coming from her it just sounded hollow. Before either of them could point out how pathetic was his attempt at fooling her, there was a sound outside as if lightning had struck the ground. The telltale sound of Gabriel coming down from the sky.

Before he could shout something to warn the angel, a blunt pain hit his temple and all was darkness.

_One Month prior_

__

The call came just as he arrived at the station, Jack had just settled onto his desk with his morning coffee and a bunch of paperwork to fill up when one of the younger officers delivered the message to him. An address on a piece of paper and just the smallest note with _Another angel_ scrawled above it. He felt his jaw clenching with frustration.

“Let’s go, we got another one.” Jack waved the piece of paper and his partner sighed deeply. Jack gave her a knowing look as they made their way down the stairs. Jack hadn’t expected it to happen so soon, the last one had been found less than a week ago, yet another angel found dead. The one they were going to see now was the tenth in five months. It kept escalating and Jack was pretty sure that soon enough there won't be anymore angels for this asshole to kill.

“Where was it this time?” Amari sounded tired as they arrived in the parking lot, the dark circles under her eyes marking that she probably wasn’t getting much sleep. He offered her his coffee, dealing with Amari when she was tired was not amusing. Along with the coffee he handed her the small note with the address, Ana read it over before sighing deeply. “So many houses around it, how much you want to bet there will still be witnesses?” She asked as both of them entered her car, a dark blue 1963 Buick Riviera that had a small picture of Ana, Fareeha and Sam on the rearview mirror.

“Perhaps this time will be different, Ana.” His words sounded kind of hollow even to him, there had been twelve victims already and even though most killings happened on busy streets and at times where someone could have easily seen something. It was frustrating, they had no clue but the bodies, which filled him with the certain dread that perhaps they never would catch this perpetrator.

“Perhaps, and then we can finally close this case. It would be an amazing surprise.” She almost sounded hopeful when she spoke, though her eyes betrayed how bitter his partner actually was about this whole situation.

They had been assigned this case back in January, when Gerárd had needed to take a leave after a serious injury sustained during a bank robbery. At first they had both seen it as a vote of confidence from their usually distant superiors, a big case with a lot of media coverage. Angels were being found dead and tortured all over the busiest areas of the city, something that seemed to come out of a mystery novel, one of those _serial killers_ it seemed. It was a new term, and all that the media wanted to talk about. Though as the days passed and they found themselves with no clues and the higher ups very clearly displeased, Jack realized it was a trap. Not Gerárd’s fault, if anything the older detective had been incredibly supportive of their investigation. Just a lot of people around them would rather have Ana and Jack fail, they were too different from what everyone else expected them to be and not content on accepting the terrible flaws of their system.

“How are Fareeha and Sam doing?” Jack asked trying to change the subject, if only for a bit. There was a victim waiting for them, but Jack could not let work become the only thing they ever talked about. Perhaps it was a little bit hypocritical of him to not want their friendship to be consumed by this case, considering he lived for his work.

Ana smiled softly at that, giving him a look through the rearview mirror that meant she could see through everything, but she did not say a word about it. “Fareeha is doing well in school, we were considering doing a roadtrip next summer to visit Sam’s family on Canada. I haven’t taken a vacation week in five years? Last time I did anything like that Fareeha still would only do anything with that Pachimari.”

“You mean the one that _got used as bait_?” Jack still had to smile remembering that one, their first case together. Those felt like simpler times sometimes, the pay wasn’t great but at least they got to solve things.

“Not my fault if the perps loved those things, I don’t think Fareeha has forgiven me, even if I gave her back the toy.”

“Not sure I would.”

She scoffed and before Jack could add anything, Ana was parking the car on the sidewalk. The lightness that had installed between them went dead as the somber reminder that they were failing and that this killing had only happened because they had been incapable of finding the killer. As they left the car it was easy to spot Oxton keeping the curious people away from the crime scene. As she spotted them the young officer seemed to visibly relax.

“Detectives, the victim is down the alley, Doctor O’Deorain is already with the body.” Jack could see the cause of Oxton’s nervousness now, the coroner seemed to have this affect on most people.

“Any witnesses?” He asked, taking his notebook from the inside of his jacket, along with his cigarette pack.

“No, sir. I did keep the lady that made the call over there.” She pointed at a young latina woman standing to the side watching everything. “Her name is Olivia and she claims she didn’t see the crime, just found this scene at 7 am while going to work.”

Jack made note of that, before turning to Ana. “You want to talk to her and I deal with O’Deorain?” His partner nodded, Jack had figured it would be the case, Ana was definitely on Officer Oxton’s team of being uncomfortable around the doctor. He turned to the young officer, patting her on the shoulder as he walked off towards the back of the alley.

It wasn’t hard to find the scene itself, a body laying on the ground, wings spread out and nailed to the ground with metal stakes. The coroner was crouching next to it, eyes scanning the injuries the body had sustained with that focused look that always made Jack feel uncomfortable. As if she had felt the tension her head slowly turned towards him.

“Morrison, good morning.” Though demons weren’t particularly worse than any human, there was something about the complete black sclera of her eyes and fangs that he could barely spot while she spoke that made him some sort of alarm to go on in the back of his mind. “Our victim here is an angel, with a feminine presentation and vessel, the apparent cause of death seems to be a gunshot to the head. The other injuries seem all to be pre-mortem, of course, I’ll need to do a full autopsy to be sure.” Her usually cold voice showed only the slightest hint of excitement something that always happened on these situations; which probably meant there was _something_ unusual, so Jack decided to pursue that.

He approached looking over the body and was a bit surprised by how methodically the injuries on the body were. There was no blood anywhere, like the wounds had been cleaned, the angels clothes were still on them and were not for the lifeless eyes and the gunshot between the eyebrows Jack would expect this angel to get up at any point. He turned to O'Deorain and spoke up. “This is weird.” She smiled more openly and Jack felt a shiver running down his spine. “It matches the other victims, though never had seen the wings like that.”

“Quite perceptive of you, Detective Morrison. I'll need to conduct some tests, unfortunately there isn’t a lot on angel anatomy, but I’m sure I can figure it out.” She got up and turned to her assistants ordering them to finish taking pictures of everything. “After you are done looking over the scene, I'll be taking the body to the morgue.” He nodded already looking around for anything, though as expected, there were no traces of anything.

“The woman that found the body says she didn’t see anything weird, apparently she had stepped out of the main street to tie her shoes, also she claims to be a witch.” Ana sounded so absolutely tired. “I got her work address and her phone number in case we need to ask more questions. Anything that might give us a clue in this scene?”

Jack shook his head, feeling the hopelessness settling back in his heart.

-

  
It sounded like thunder right next to them.

Jack was sitting on his desk, discussing the little evidence they had with Ana and Reinhardt. The three of them jumped up and ran towards the window to the side. Jack felt his mouth going dry as soon as caught a glimpse of what he caused it. Standing in the middle of the road was an angel. Long Black wings shining under the sun, halo glowing above his head. The body though, the body was familiar to them all. Reinhardt gasped in shock. Ana whispered softly, her voice shaking.

“Reyes.”

They hadn’t seen the other detective for three years now, he had gone missing while investigating a cult and they had never found his body. If Jack had known he was still alive he’d done something about it, but now, it was useless. When an angel or a demon took over a body, the soul who it once belonged to was gone. They stared for a couple moments as the shirtless angel looked around, eventually his eyes finding the station and the angel started making his way towards it.

“We should talk to him.” Jack spoke up, trying to deal with the internal confusion of all this.

Ana nodded and both of them rushed down the stairs. Finding the angel standing amidst very confused civilians and younger officers. No one had seen an angel coming down from Heaven in years, for all Jack or anyone else knew they had all given up and either would stay in Heaven forever or were living in remote places of Earth, judging humanity but doing fuck all to help. The angel in Reyes’ body had no clothes on, just a red sheet tied around his waist. His piercing gaze almost burned through anyone in which it might fall upon. Jack approached, trying to be non-threatening and doing his best not to show his concern, there were far too many ways this could go poorly.

“Good Afternoon. May I help you?” The idea that they had somehow screwed up so much that the angels had decided to take interest on this. They couldn’t be ignorant to the deaths of their brethren.

The angel stared at him for a moment, before speaking. Jack had somehow expected it not to be Reyes’ voice, but it was, even if the intonation was different there was something so bittersweet about hearing his friend. “I sensed a disturbance on this city, I have come to discover what it was. You are the humans responsible for protecting the inhabitants, so it felt right to come here.”

Next to him Ana swore softly in masri and Jack wanted to do it as well, but it would be too obvious. If this angel did not know of the killings, they would have to tell him about it, and fuck, Jack was not prepared to tell someone all of his people had been killed. He put on his better public relations face, and continued speaking.

“Please, accompany us upstairs.” He gestured towards the stairs. “We can talk more privately there.”

The angel seemed confused but complied. Ana and Jack following upstairs, the rest of the station looking at the scene and whispering. He could not hear the words spoken, but he doubted that they were kind. Jack tried to ignore the crawling hand of inadequacy and insecurity rising up his throat, he wondered if the words they had to say to this angel would even do anything but hurt. They had no answers.

Ana whispered as they arrived upstairs. “Do you want me to talk to him?” She didn’t sound like she actually wanted to do this, and Jack could not blame her for that. Ana and Reyes were far closer than Jack and him had been, she used to be his partner before he went undercover.

“It’s fine, you could call Gérard in the meantime. Ask if he needs us to send someone to watch over them.” He knew that the other detectives wife was not a full blooded angel, a nephilim or such, but he could not feel calm with the idea of not at least offering some support to them.

“Yeah, I’ll join you in a bit.” She patted his shoulder and walked off towards her desk, giving one last look towards the angel before looking away, Jack did her the kindness of pretending he didn’t see the tears almost escaping her eyes.

He took the angel to the interview room, it felt so weird to have a figure with those wings and halos, sitting shirtless there staring at him in expectation. Jack grabbed a cigarette pack from his jacket.

“Do you mind if I?”

The angel just arched an eyebrow with disdain. “You do not need my permission.” Jack took it exactly like that though, lighting a cigarette and sitting across the table. “What is the reason for this private conversation?” He didn’t even blink staring intently into Jack’s face, reading him for every reaction.

Jack couldn’t stop himself from feeling like he was being interrogated, but he decided to just go along with it for now. “First, I'd like to know which name should I call you by?’

The angel arched an eyebrow before replying dryly. “Gabriel will do.”

Jack nodded taking a drag of his cigarette and letting the smoke roll out. It would take a while for him to get used to hearing Reyes’ voice without it being his friend behind it. “I’m Detective Jack Morrison. Gabriel, how long have you been … among humans?”

“Besides the acquiring of this vessel, you have seen all my interactions with your kind.” He didn’t seem amused by any interactions, just staring with those dark eyes that seemed to read past any attempt to hide Jack’s discomfort.

“We were quite surprised to see you, Gabriel, most of us here haven’t had the chance to see a living angel in person. There were never that many around Indianapolis, and unfortunately, these past few months the numbers have been diminishing.” Jack felt disgusted speaking like that, but there was procedure and he didn’t want to upset the angel even more.

“And why is that?”

Jack gave him ran his fingers through his hair, it was better for him to be upfront, even if he knew this wasn’t going to go well. “There has been an attacker, whoever they are their target seems to be angels. I’m sorry, but there haven’t been any survivors from this attacks. We can assure you we’ve been doing our best to catch the perpetrator.”

He expected an emotional response, for the angel to do something like scream or punch him, anything really. Instead he got a cold expression and focused eyes, staring deep into his own and simple phrase. “I will come for whoever is doing this.” There was a fury behind those words, though not loud or clear it was there. “You are the one responsible for hunting this person?”

Jack nodded. “The woman who accompanied us upstairs is also a part of the investigation.”

“I wish to be a part of it. If there is someone killing my brethren I cannot stand idly by.”

Jack could tell this was a terrible idea, but he also felt like if he said ‘no’ that wouldn’t stop the angel from doing it. Perhaps just out of luck, Ana opened the door and called him over, Jack apologized to the angel, who kept the stoic expression just watching as he walked out of the room.

“What is the matter?” He really wished nothing bad had happened to Amelie or Gérard, there was only so much he could handle before it started affecting his work.

Ana patted his shoulder. “We need should leave him alone for a while, I doubt he will be able to process anything with you sitting there.” She rested her hip against the wall, looking at Jack with an arched brow. He sighed deeply before mimicking her movement. “Great. Gérard is fine, so is Amélie. They don’t seem to think there will be any danger, considering she is not a full angel. I’m probably gonna ask for a squad car in front of their house anyway, just to be sure.”

Jack nodded as she spoke, it was a sound plan.  
“Oxton might be a good one for that.” He added, which earned him a disbelief look from Amari. “She has enough energy to not fall asleep half-way through the watch.”

“She will also probably not be capable of sitting still for that long. Don’t worry, I have someone in mind for that job.” Ana took the cigarette from his hand and took a deep drag herself. “Also, I was listening to your conversation with… Gabriel, and I got an idea.”

He stared at her, taking the cigarette back. “Continue please.”

“He is not about to give up investigating, even if we tell him he is at risk. So I was thinking we could use his presence here instead. Take him somewhere safe and always have one of us keeping an eye on him. I doubt our killer will be able to control themselves for long.”

It was a risky plan, Jack could think of a thousand ways it would go bad, but he also could think of a thousand things that would happen if they left this angel alone. He could feel Ana reading his reactions, so he just sighed and moved away from the wall.

“I’ll offer that to him, let’s see how he reacts.”

-

Gabriel was clearly not the biggest fan of having two humans keeping watch of him, but accepted nonetheless. It ended with Jack and Ana taking the angel to a decent motel that wouldn’t ask too many questions about the angel and the police officers sharing a room. Jack eventually managed to convince Ana he could take the first night, she had family and all that so it made more sense for him to be there. What Jack wasn’t expecting was that as he showed the angel the room, Gabriel seemed absolutely confused about everything.

Not to mention he was still walking around with just the sheet around his waist and the wings. Jack hadn’t mentioned anything before, but he had seen the receptionist baffled stares at the practically naked figure.

“Gabriel, if you don’t mind me asking. Do you have ways to look less… obviously angelical?”

His answer was a glare and the angel rolling his shoulders back, which led to the wings retracting? Jack wasn’t quite sure what he saw happening, all he knew was by the end the dark wings were gone and replaced by tattooed versions of themselves covering Gabriel’s shoulders and part of his arms. The halo was also gone, and for a moment Jack was speechless. He knew Reyes was good looking man, but he had never felt anything about it before, but seeing Gabriel standing there, tattooed form and piercing eyes. Jack felt his mouth going dry, and it took him a good second to shake his head away from this delusion.

He coughed, trying to mask whatever had just happened, looking away and going on. “We will have to get you some clothes as well.”

The angel cocked his head clearly confused by all this statement and Jack tried not to just groan in frustration. “If you are going to accompany us, it would be better for you to wear some human clothes.”

“I thought I was supposed to be bait.”

Jack couldn’t stop himself from grimacing, because when it was put like that he couldn’t help but feel like they were being actual assholes to this angel. “We are not letting anything happen to you, we are going to keep a close eye on you.”

Gabriel just gave him an incredulous look. Without everything that signified his angelic persona, Jack could almost forget he was talking to a being that could probably smite him. It only served as a sour reminder that whoever was out there had somehow managed to kill several of these practically immortal beings.

“But you really do need clothes. It’s not going to work with the sheet.” Jack considered for a moment looking him over. “I have some that might fit you in the car.”

Gabriel shrugged, sitting on the bed as if to show he wasn’t going anywhere. It wasn’t hard to do a quick run to the car he had parked right in front and grab his duffel bag with a few changes of clothes he kept just in case. It should be enough to last until they solved this - with the escalation of the attacks he doubted the killer wouldn’t make a move sooner rather than later.

As he returned, the angel was at the exact same place staring vacantly at the Tv. Jack threw the bag next to him on the bed. “You can choose whatever suits you the most, it’s all clean.”

Gabriel leaned in and opened the bag, grabbing a black button up shirt and staring it intensely confused and something flashed on Jack’s mind as he asked sitting on the other bed. “You’ve never wore clothes?”

“There is no need for such a thing in Heaven.”

This was going to be a lot more than Jack had signed up for, but it was an improvement from sitting around looking at evidence that wouldn’t piece itself into something that made sense.

-

“We can’t take you with us.” Ana sounded much like a mother, staring at the angel in front of her. “It would be unethical.”

Jack had given up on trying to talk Gabriel out of joining them while they went to talk to the family the victim was a part of. The angel was surprisingly stubborn, so in the end Jack had decided to just let Ana talk him out of it. They were in the room, Jack was sitting on an armchair downing the coffee and smoking a cigarette. The night had been mostly uneventful, as he got Gabriel into a shirt and sweatpants, explaining how to put them on and the reasons why.

“I wish to see where my brethren was staying, I will be able to understand the nuances that your mind can’t comprehend.” He mimicked her position, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to stand taller, Jack would have laughed at that, if he wasn’t suddenly worried Ana would destroy the angel.

Ana arched an eyebrow in disbelief before taking a deep breath and continuing her line of though. “I would love your insight on the case, Gabriel. As long as you respect that we are the ones investigating, and the only reason you will be even allowed to be a small part of it is because we are allowing it.” Their stares met and Jack felt like he was watching two cowboys having a standoff, it felt like they were going for an eternity until Gabriel backed off.

“I could join you but wait on the metal cask until you are done.”

Ana grinned and nodded. “You staying in the car seems doable.” She stated before turning and leaving the room, Jack got up to follow her lead, stopping on the way to pat Gabriel’s shoulder. He had been on the other side of Ana’s determination quite a number of times and he would have felt bad of calling it upon Gabriel.

The car felt weird with the three of them, so Jack just used the time of the trip to go over the details. “According to our info, the angel went by Uriel. She was living with her vessel’s family, they were absolutely crushed by the news.”

“Let’s hope it’s genuine worry.” Ana sounded skeptical. “I still think the killer might be using all those killings to hide a specific one that they actually meant to commit. Makes more sense.”

“I don’t know, Ana. There is something too ritualistic about them, I just don’t think it’s a cover for one of them. This killer has purpose, besides if they wanted to just hide a murder they could have killed all the angels in a shorter span of time. Taking this long seems excessive.”

Gabriel’s voice brought both him and Ana back to their reality. “Whoever it is, this killer has to be incredibly skilled. All angels know how to fight and defend themselves.”

“Might be less of a matter of skill and more of a matter of trickery and cunning. All the victims seemed to be caught off guard.”

“Is that not skill?” Gabriel asked, and Jack could see him looking out the window of the car and an involuntary smile formed on his lips.

The car stopped at the small house outside of town, a simple one with a little girl playing outside. Jack took a deep breath, turning to Gabriel and giving him a weak reassurance smile. “Don’t do anything stupid while we are there.”

The angel just stared at him deadpan. “We have an agreement, I won’t break my part of it.”

There was something amusing and endearing with the way he was so absolutely deadpan about everything. There was a smile playing on his lips as he followed Ana, who gave him a glance and arched an eyebrow but didn’t make any comments. Still, Jack could see the wheels in her head turning and he couldn’t say he was a fan.

Whatever feelings or lightness there might have been completely left once they started interacting with the family of the victim. Seeing grief was always hard, but this family had taken the angel in after it had inhabited their sister. They had obviously no idea, the only thing they got new was that she was meeting a woman. Jack did his best to be supportive as Amari was clearly far more focused on noting down the details. The promises that they were going to find the culprit felt somewhat empty as he delivered them, with his empty political smile and perfect hair. Jack couldn’t blame them for not looking like they believed his words.

As he left, Amari pat his back apologetic and Jack groaned. “Let’s hope this is the last visit of the sort we have to do.”

“At least we have some leads this time, Jack.”

“Yes, we do. A woman, that’s interesting... Could it be the witness you talked to at the scene? The girl that found the body?”

Ana pondered for a moment, walking over to the car. “She didn’t seem to be lying about not knowing the victim, but we can always pay her another visit.”  
-

“I do not understand the obsession humans seem to have with romantic love.” The angel spoke when Jack was keeping watch later that night. “I understand the impulse to form pairs in order to continue the species, but the fantasizing of how that pairing might happen seems to be much more integral to human society than I was lead to believe.”

Jack couldn’t keep a confused frown from his face as he looked around, trying to figure out what had prompted this. It wasn’t hard to seem the television turned on and one of those ridiculous romantic comedies playing on the background of their conversation.

“It’s more than just for pairing, the connections that form are important for people. Not saying the media doesn’t make it bigger than it should be, it’s just, being loved feels good - not necessarily in a romantic way, just being loved.” It felt so weird to explain this to Gabriel, like the idea the angel didn't understand love was just outlandish.

Gabriel frowned staring at Jack. “Like you and Ana share a loving relationship but aren't a pair.”

“Correct.” Jack smiled, as it seemed that the angel was so incredibly quick on his grasp on the concepts. Gabriel nodded and went back to watching whatever it was with just mild interest.

They remained in silence for about twenty minutes, Jack lit a cigarette absentmindedly filing the paperwork and going over O'Deorain's reports yet again, hoping to find anything he might have missed.

“Did you wish for the two of you to be a pair?” Gabriel's voice brought Jack back to reality, and as he processed what the angel had asked him, he couldn’t contain a hearty laugh. It wouldn’t be the first time someone assumed that.

As he managed to stop laughing, he looked up at Gabriel to see him frowning at this reaction, and it finally occurred to Jack that he might have to explain this to him.“No. I’m not interested in being in a relationship with any woman. Ana is amazing, and she is a dear friend, but not like that.” He tried to read the expression that followed, but he could not find any trace of anything negative. Instead, it was like watching someone figuring out a puzzle. “Does that bother you, Gabriel?”

The reaction was immediate, the angel’s head snapped up and he answered. “Why would it? And why would my opinion matter?” He didn’t sound angry or frustrated, just looking Jack like he had seen him for the first time. Eventually he just gave a quick nod towards Jack and turned back to face the screen of the TV.

Jack felt a smile forming on his lips as he watched the angel, deciding he might not mind being the babysitter a few more times.

-

The last few days had been uneventful, mostly just dead ends with the witnesses and him and Ana alternating watches over Gabriel. That was until one day the three of them were at the station, looking at their case files and trying to figure something out. And just like that they got two calls, one from the girl that had found the body saying she needed to talk to someone about a suspicion she had and just as they were all getting ready to leave, Doctor O’Deorain called saying the autopsy was finished.

Jack had never been a fan of the morgue and usually he wouldn’t be the one going there, but Amari was the one that had contact with the witness and the girl had made it clear she could only talk now. So in the end they decided it was best just split up for this one. Gabriel had insisted on coming along to this as well and in all honesty he didn’t mind the angel’s company. In fact he was enjoying it so very much. Still, it felt wrong to be here with him. As they stood next to each other on the elevator he could see the jawline clenching in tension and it just felt wrong. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to give him any pity. It wouldn’t be fair.

“Fair warning, O’Deorain is a demon, don’t know how much that impacts everything. If you don’t wanna meet her.”

Gabriel pondered for a moment before answering coldly. “I’ll deal with it, if she is working towards a good thing I have no qualms with her.”

The elevator did a small ping and they left heading towards the morgue itself. Inside Moira was standing in her white clothes and looking over someone’s body. Another victim of senseless violence. She turned towards than and the creepy smile was there, Jack couldn’t not realized next to him Gabriel had gone more stiff.

“Detective Morrison and I assume you are the angel I’ve heard about. Delighted to meet you.”

Gabriel groaned and nodded, crossing his arms over his chest and Jack didn’t have to think a lot to realize he was very tense. So, he stepped up, between Gabriel and O’Deorain. “You said you had the results of the autopsy.”

She smiled and gestured for them to follow as she walked towards one of the many lockers around and Jack tried to forget that there was probably someone inside each one of them. He looked over his shoulder and Gabriel looked like he was about to implode. The angel seemed so smaller laying there as Moira started reciting the injuries and how most of them had actually happened pre-mortem. It was disturbing how almost gleeful she sounded. Jack got his notepad to make the important notes, but every few seconds he found himself looking at Gabriel, who was growing clearly paler by the word.

“The most fascinating part is clearly there was an attempt to remove the wings, failed of course, but your killer wanted those wings for some reason. Mythically the wings are clearly the source of an angel’s power, though I’m sure your friend can give you better explanations about how this works and how much truth there is to that.” Jack glared at her, he could tell the doctor was prodding for a reaction from the angel. “Also, I have a time of death in case you ever get a suspect.” She handed a folder to Jack clearly pleased with herself.

Jack took it and turned to Gabriel who was staring intently at the dead angel’s face. “Let’s go, Gabriel.”

There was a moment before the angel looked at him, nodding and practically running out of the room. Jack followed, catching up to him by the elevator and probably for the first time since they met he actually touched the other. It was warmer than he thought it would be, and he could feel that his shoulders were absolutely stiff with tension.

“Do you wanna go for a cigarette?” Jack offered as they stood yet again in the elevator.

Gabriel stared at him, clearly looking for some sort of pity but frankly Jack himself could use the break, and the company was pleasant. So he just gave out a crooked smile and shrugged. Luckily, it seemed to work as Gabriel replied. “I don’t really see the point of the smoke, but a break would be nice.”

“There is a park just across the street, should be mostly empty right now.” Jack used to hang around there when things got a little bit too much for him and he couldn’t just go to his apartment to get a drink.

It was very peaceful, most kids were at school and besides like 5 couples and one old lady they were alone. There was a nice bench near a statue that he left himself sit upon the weight of the days coming down on him. Gabriel sat next to him, tension slowly releasing from his shoulders. He clearly was making use of this relaxation time. Jack lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, he should stop probably, Amari was always complaining about how it smelled terrible. After a little bit he offered it back to Gabriel who took a drag like it was nothing.

“Impressive. Most people cough a lot on their first try.”

Gabriel gave him a dry smile. “This vessel did it, besides it’s not like it has any real effect on me.” It didn’t make Jack as uncomfortable as he should have, but still he couldn’t stop himself from wincing more as a reflex than anything. Gabriel gave hima quick glance. “It bothers you, I do not mean to do so.”

Jack shook his head taking back the cigarette. “It’s not really your fault. It's just something new to me.”

They stayed in silence for a while sharing a cigarette. He could see how Gabriel still looked tense, even if a lot less than at the morgue. Usually, he wouldn't get into personal matters but curiosity and overall concern got the better of him, so he decided to strike some type of conversation. "I'm sorry Doctor O'Deorain was like that."

Gabriel sighed. "Can't say it surprised me." He was making a point of not looking at Jack as he spoke. "It is complicated dealing with her kind, seeing the vessel's body like that… was harder than I expected." Jack remained silent, hand itching to touch and be supportive, but he did not want to do anything that might interfere. "With my arrival here, Heaven is empty. It's very hard not to just blame your kind for it, but it’s also hard not to blame them for trying to… live with you all.” His frustration was noticeable as Gabriel took the cigarette from Jack with no ceremony.

He wanted to know the right thing to say now, Gabriel looked distressed and upset for a few seconds, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath seeming to slowly center himself again. It was somewhat unusual to watch, how the calm and stoic persona the angel adopted seemed to reform itself around him.

“I can’t imagine how it must feel, I’m sorry I dragged you along.”

Gabriel turned to him frowning. “I wanted to go. Don’t apologize for my choices.”

Jack wouldn’t say it wasn’t slightly frustrating to not understand what was going through the angel’s head, how none of the social cues he’d spent all his life mastering were useless. Even if he was trying to mask it must have been apparent because Gabriel spoke up again.

“Angels don’t feel like humans do. We aren’t supposed to feel disgust or hate, we aren’t supposed to be misguided on our anger.”

“No one can control their feelings all the time.”

Gabriel gave him a dismissive glare. “No human.”

Jack was becoming increasingly more frustrated with the stubbornness in front of him. “No one. If you control everything you feel, than you’d never be open to new things.”

\--

Ana had insisted Jack went home that night, practically kicking his ass out the door. She was claiming that he was a bad influence for Gabriel - which actually had made the angel laugh -a great advance from the sour mood from a couple hours earlier. So Jack went to his smallish apartment he had forgotten how empty the place felt. He didn’t even have plants cause he doubted he’d be able to take care of them. It didn’t usually bother him at all, but after so many days watching over Gabriel and spending time with him, it felt more obvious and intense.

It was proving to be harder than he thought to be home, there was a small moment where he even considered just going to the hotel to spend the night with them. Jack hadn’t even realized how much time he had been spending with the angel until now that he wasn’t around. Perhaps that was why Amari had sent him home, she could read him usually quite well. Perhaps he needed to start going out more, it had been almost three years since he’d had a date, which wasn’t surprising. He knew that choosing to be a cop meant he’d not be liked by either the cops or the not-straight community. The few times he managed to get someone it was always more directed towards sex, and never did he get the chance to actually be with a person for more than a couples nights. He wondered for a moment if angels had such relationships - if the talk he had with Gabriel a few nights ago probably no.

It was useless to think about this now, there was no one in his future and he had to focus on the case anyway. Ana hadn’t got a lot of useful information from the witness, just solid alibis for the other killings. Enough so she wasn’t a suspect, but not enough to give them any leads. Jack ended up sitting on his shitty couch wearing boxers and smoking a cigarette, while all the note he had where scattered in front of him on the floor.

He needed to talk to someone about this, and Amari was busy - he didn’t want her to know that he was using his “off-night” to work. Gérard was an option though, he hadn’t talked to the old detective in such a long while, sort of missed having him around. There was always the hope that he would recover enough to rejoin them. He ended up calling, while still laying there.

“Hello, Lacroix Residence.” Amélie’s voice greeted him in that almost monotone she carried.

“Hello, Amélie, it’s Jack. I was wondering if Gérard could talk?”

There was a slight silence before her reply came over. “I’m afraid not, he went to bed early today. Do you need me to hand him a message?”

Usually, Jack wouldn’t be sharing information like this, but it was Amélie. “Just tell him we got info the perp maybe a woman.” Something clicked on his mind as he was looking over the notes. “Amélie, I’m sorry for the personal question, but you don’t have wings, right?”

He could almost feel her glare across the phone line. “No, I do not possess wings. As a nephilim, I didn’t inherit that from my parents.”

“Great.”

His thoughts while he tried to make sense of everything were swiftly interrupted by Amélie’s voice.“May I ask, why the question?”

“Not much, but there is a chance the killer is going for the wings. If you don’t have any, you should be safe. Even so, if you need help you and Gérard can always count on the department.” Jack wouldn’t be able to deal if something happened to the two of them that he could’ve prevented.

“I appreciate it. Now if you will excuse me, Jack, Gérard needs me.” Their marriage was sweet, Jack couldn’t help but feel a tinge of envy, specially looking over at his messy and empty apartment.

“Of course, good night Amélie.”

\--

Jack would not lie that having Gabriel’s company was so much better than being alone. Even if their interactions were centered mostly around investigating. Today, the three of them were sitting around Jack’s desk, looking over all the information they had. Ana was patiently looking over everything. Gabriel was more up to Jack’s speed, standing behind Jack and looking over the information they had and groaning every once in a while with the sheer frustration of not being able to make any connections. Jack himself was sitting there reading the same names, reviewing the interviews.

“I still do not believe that a human could have done it.” Jack hadn’t realized how close Gabriel was to him until now, he could feel the warmth of the angel’s body behind him and for a moment his breath hitched. It felt surprisingly nice and it took Jack some seconds to actually process and give Gabriel a reply.

Before speaking, Jack made sure to rotate on his chair so he was facing Gabriel, so that their faces wouldn’t be as close. “Who do you think could do it, then?”

Gabriel frowned for a moment and actually seemed frustrated to speak up. “No angel would hurt another one of or brethren, and I am aware humans and demons have an amicable relationship. However, I can only believe that a demon would be able to so precisely strike down an angel.”

Jack was a bit caught off guard by that suggestion. He would sometimes forget that they were infinitely more powerful than he could have ever wrap his head around. Ana hummed along, clearly going through a similar mind process to Jack’s at the moment. Jack nodded for a moment, before taking a notepad and a pen and starting to make notes.

“It is a viable idea, can’t be our main focus but frankly it’s not like we have any leads and anything would be better than just waiting for the next victim.”

Gabriel seemed slightly surprised that he was being taken seriously, but eventually he just smiled. Behind them, Ana got grabbing the telephone from its hook. “I’m going to request the mayor’s office for a list of demonic being living in town, even if we don’t get our culprit from that might be a good place to start.”

It was so refreshing to have anything they could focus on this investigation. Something for them to focus on. They were in this slightly euphoric moment when someone stood behind him and spoke up with a sort of a sweet voice.

“I suppose I came at a good time.” He turned to see the young District Attorney standing there with her suit and genuine smile.

“The best time of this day probably.” Jack replied, smiling back at Angela as he got up to shake her hand. “We are starting to pursue new pathways of investigation.”

She nodded before turning to Gabriel and smiling softly. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Mister Gabriel I assume?”

“Just Gabriel it’s fine. I’m no _Mister_. That’s useless human titling”He actually scoffed at the title and Jack had to glare at him though it was mostly half-hearted. Seeing the angel breaking his usual guarded and distant demeanour was too much of a delight.

Angela did not seem bothered, in fact a smile sneaked its way out of her professional demeanor. “Fair enough, Gabriel. I’m sure you and the detectives are getting along fine?”

He nodded. “They are fine, for humans.”

“That’s great to hear, Gabriel.” Jack couldn’t contain the slight sarcasm to slip through, and to be honest he hadn’t expected the smirk he received back. For a moment all he could process was how that smile was stunning. Fuck, he needed to keep focused.

Angela continued speaking up. “As much as I’m glad the three of you are having a great time, but I feel like a must warn all of you that the superiours are getting anxious.” Ana groaned audibly, Jack could absolutely understand the frustration. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen that coming. Still it felt incredibly frustrating. “They also are complaining about the costs of Gabriel’s room.” Angela looked slightly guilty.

“What do they expect us to do?” Ana sounded so tired and frustrated. “Leave him sleeping in one of the cells?”

Angela looked down apologetic. “I tried convincing them your plan was the most sensible one, but they did not listen to me. I’m sorry.”

Jack knew he shouldn’t make the proposition that had just crossed his mind, but he looked over at Gabriel. If Jack hadn’t been spending so much time with him, perhaps he wouldn’t have noticed it, but there was a worry in his eyes as he looked at Jack. He clearly expected to be left behind or something of the sort. “Gabriel could stay in my apartment.” The other three stared at him in confusion, so Jack just continued. “We still need him to be watched by someone, and Ana’s house has more people that could be collateral if the killer appeared.”

Ana rolled her eyes, but turned to the angel. “Gabriel, your choice.”

“I see no problem with it.” And Jack couldn’t stop a genuine smile.

-

“Your apartment has no difference from a hotel room, that’s quite fascinating.”

“No need for the sarcasm, Gabriel.” Jack glared at him as they both stood on Jack’s living room. The angel had left the duffel bag of clothes on the table and was looking around. Jack hadn’t really thought about how the place looked, and he hadn’t expected that much sass from the angel. “Hope it’s acceptable for you, your highness.”

Gabriel smirked turning to him. “It will do.” He stared at Jack for a few moments, his brows furrowing a bit.

“You seem like you are trying to solve a puzzle of some sort.” Jack took off his overcoat and threw it on the sofa.

“Even the most dedicated of soldiers should have something to bring them joy.” Gabriel stated with almost concern in his voice. “You do not seem to have much outside of it.” He approached his hand coming to rest on Jack’s shoulder, their eyes locked in this intense gaze that made Jack’s mouth go dry. “Don’t let this consume, Jack. It would be a waste.” And then he walked away, going towards the kitchen like he knew the place.

Jack couldn’t help but feel a little astonished by all of this conversation. He couldn’t be this obvious about his workaholic manner, and well, he really didn’t think the angel could judge. His entire being seemed focused on the achievement of justice, but then again, he seemed to be adapting to everything incredibly well.

“Don’t mess with the stove. I don’t want you to burn down the entire building.” Was all he could bring himself to say as he followed the angel to the kitchen. Gabriel was standing in front of the fridge looking at it with a curious expression.

“Where is the food?” He asked very serious. “You are aware you cannot survive on the smoke of your cigarettes.”

Jack frowned as well and walked behind the angel, staring at his mostly empty fridge. It wasn’t fully empty though. “We can make something with what we have here.”

“You can make food?” Gabriel sounded incredulous and Jack could feel himself sighing deeply.

“ _Yes_ ” And he started grabbing things from the fridge. “And you are going to help me with it.”

Cooking with Gabriel was quite an experience, but it felt nice. At least nicer than cooking alone. Gabriel would watch and do everything with an absurd precision, incredibly puzzled when Jack would just put things in and not worry about quantity. There were moments Jack found himself just staring as he was supposed to be stirring something, just watching Gabriel want wanting to touch him. Perhaps because it had been so long since he had touched other people. Having a man standing there in his kitchen made him think about a future he probably wouldn’t have, about watching Ana and Sam doing all sorts of casual things as a couple.

“What’s on your mind?” Gabriel eventually asked as they both sat on Jack’s small dining table.

And usually he would have avoided answering it, but he was very tired of all of not talking about things. “Just considering what my future might be. And perhaps doing a little bit of the human obsessing with romantic love.”

“You want a partner for life?” Gabriel didn’t seem to judge him.

Jack shrugged, which was true as well. “It would be nice. Not seeing it happen anytime soon though, so…”

Gabriel just stared at him between bites of food for a while. “Why? You are a handsome man, and good company.”

“It’s more complex than that.” Jack didn’t want to explain all the nuances, but it felt sort of nice to hear those compliments.  
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “You humans are unnecessarily complicated.” Before getting up and taking away the dishes. “Also, I noticed you do not have a guest bed, I can sleep on the couch. You need rest more than me.”

Jack hadn’t considered that was a problem, and it felt so unfair to shove him into Jack’s shitty couch. “It shouldn’t be a problem for us to share a bed, it’s big enough.”

Gabriel stared at him, before shrugging. “As you wish.”

-

It was a surprising comfortable nice, Jack had expected it to be incredibly awkward. Perhaps because it hadn’t been the first time that they slept in the same room, and Gabriel didn’t move a lot. Jack managed to fall asleep incredibly quickly. Now, they were back to work trying to work that demon angle. There weren’t as many registered demons in the Indianapolis area as he would have initially figured. To be accurate, there were only four. Two CEOs from big companies that were currently staying around but both hadn’t been in town in the time of the first murders, one was the governor’s wife (Jack didn’t even want to think about the implications of that), and their own coroner Moira O’Deorain.

Jack and Gabriel had decided to go visit the demon to check her for alibis, more to make sure the criminal wasn’t hiding in their midst. Jack was mostly sure that she couldn’t be the one to blame, but they couldn’t dismiss her. It had been a surprise when Gabriel had joined him on yet another visit to the morgue. After last time, he hadn’t expected the angel to want to go a hundred feet from the place, but the cold determination had returned.

As they arrived to the to the morgue, it was empty. It was even creepier to stand there when they were the only living beings inside it. There was a body lying on the examination table, the dead angel was there. Gabriel hadn’t taken his eyes from them since they walked in, Jack took a deep breath and started walking towards it trying to find a sheet to cover it while they waited for O’Deorain. Before he could anything though there was a strong hand on his arm, stopping him.

“Why is she still examining the body?” Gabriel asked, moving closer to the body.

“Perhaps she realized something after we left?” He joined the angel at looking at the body.

“Hmm, I’m going to check something.” Gabriel raised his hand, eyes glowing softly as he hovered it over the angel’s body. Jack almost wanted to make it stop, but they needed every clue they could possibly get. So instead he walked towards the door, keeping an eye out in case O’Deorain or her assistants returned. It wasn’t long before Gabriel’s voice chimed in, apparently having completed whatever he was doing. “There is more missing from her now. A lot of her essence is gone, it wasn’t as bad last time.”

“That’s weird.”

Their gazes met for a moment and the unspoken agreement happened right them, they had to leave before Moira returned. This was far too suspicious.

-

Jack called Ana from outside a phonebooth outside, she was at the station talking to the witch that had found the body. Gabriel was standing outside, keeping an eye out. They had barely exchanged any pleasantries before she asked.

“Did you get anything useful from O’Deorain?” She sounded frustrated, and he could almost see her massaging her temple as she spoke.

“Nothing you will like. She did something to the body after giving us the report. Gabriel says a lot of the angel’s essence was gone. Did she tell you was going to do something like that?”

Ana groaned on the other side. “No she didn’t. How do you even do something like that?”

“No idea.”

In the background of the call, he heard a woman asking Ana something and he could hear his partner moving away from the phone to speak to her. Jack sighed as he shoved more quarters into the phone. Eventually, Ana returned and she sounded equally tired but with a tinge of almost hopefulness in her voice.

“Well, we might be in luck. Our witness says she knows O’Deorain, and that she can look in her contacts to see if there is anything suspicious. All she needs is for us to promise not to put her in trouble.” Jack didn’t like the idea of working with someone outside of their group, you could never know what sort of trouble they could bring, but they were too starved for any information.

“Seems like as good of a plan as we are getting.”

-

These past few days with Gabriel staying over around Jack most of the time, and he couldn’t lie that he enjoyed the company very much. So perhaps when Gabriel went with Ana to talk to O’Deorain’s assistants, to check her for her alibis, Jack had to admit he missed the angel’s presence an awful lot. He had been going around, he had called the mayor’s wife just to be able to cross her out of their list. There wasn’t a lot she could tell, but she and her husband were travelling to another town for some celebration of some sort. He hoped that Moira would have an alibi of some sort, but also perhaps some small part of him needed the closure on this case. For himself and for Gabriel.

He was brought from his thoughts into the real world, as a notebook was dropped on his desk. He looked up to see Amélie standing there with sunglasses and her usual very fashionable look. She didn’t smile, but to be completely honest, he'd only seen her smile on her wedding day.

"What's this?" Jack checked the notebook, black and sleek but inside he could several notes detailling what seemed to be an investigation into O’Deorain.

“Gérard’s notes. He asked me to deliver them to you after I told him about our conversation the other day.” She was looking him over, clearly trying to understand why Jack was smiling at her. He wanted to hug Amelie, but he was also very aware if he did such a thing she would be incredibly against it. This was a sign they were on the right track, that Gérard had also suspected their coroner. He flipped through the pages, surprised at how light this made him feel.

“Thank you so much for bringing these over. They are going to be of great help for sure. Send Gérard my gratitude.”

She nodded and started walking away, just as Jack saw Gabriel and Ana making it up the stairs. There was a weird moment there, as they crossed each other's path. Ana smiled openly at the other woman, but Gabriel and Amelie had a moment where they just stared intensely at each other before Ana asked them what was wrong. The angel shook his head and everyone kept walking. As Gabriel approached Jack’s desk, the detective couldn’t keep himself from asking. “Did something happen?”

“I got a weird around her. Like death was too close to her.” Gabriel was incredibly tense. “I’m worried she’s in danger.”

Jack frowned as well, before touching Gabriel’s elbow. “I’ll make sure we have more officers stationed at her house.”

They exchanged a look as Gabriel slowly nodded, but Jack could tell that this issue was far from out of his mind.

And he wasn’t wrong, by the time they made it back to Jack’s apartment later that evening Gabriel was still tense. He barely had spoken during the rest of their meeting or even when Jack had shown the notebook with info that might lead them to actually make an arrest. Ana had taken it home to give a read over, and promised to call Jack in case any clear information showed up. Now, as the angel sat on Jack’s couch still so incredibly tense the detective himself couldn’t help but groan.

“It’s still bothering you.” He stated, sitting next to Gabriel and lighting a cigarette.

“How could it not be?” Gabriel was so intensely frustrated, running his fingers through his hair and letting his head fall back. Jack wished he could do anything to make him feel better, but there didn’t feel like there was anything he could really do. “I had forgotten how it felt to sense dangers and things like that. There had been a while since I felt like an angel.”

And a dumb idea formed on Jack’s mind. “Do you missing having your wings out?” It had been so long since he’d seen them, he could understand how it felt to hide part of yourself but he could also see in Gabriel’s body language right as he asked that question that the answer was positive so he continued. “You can let them out in here you know? You just have a while to just be yourself.”

Gabriel looked at him those deep brown eyes scanning over Jack’s face for something before a tired smile formed on his lips. Jack watched as it happened, as Gabriel took off the shirt he had been wearing and the tattoos were there he subconsciously moved his hand to touch them. Before he got to them though, there were glowing so bright like the lines were made of light and the wings - black and divinely beautiful - spread. He felt breathless as he stared and saw Gabriel turning his head to face him.

The words escaped his mouth even though he knew he should stop them. “Can I touch you?”

Instead of reprisal Gabriel smiled openly at him. “Yes.”

So Jack did, he touched those black feathers they were so soft. He ran his fingers through them, his fingers feeling so rough against it. He wasn’t sure for how long he did, just touching the wings and realizing this was a part of Gabriel he should not have asked them angel to keep hidden. Yes, it was impractical, but he was clearly at so much more peace with them out. Eventually, his gaze was drawn to Gabriel’s face. And he realized the angel had been watching his expressions all this time. And for a moment, he was so filled with the need to kiss Gabriel. To close this now barely existent distance between the two of them.

He didn’t do it though, Jack stepped back looking down and feeling himself stupidly blush at his own thoughts.

“I’ll make dinner tonight.”

-

The thought of kissing Gabriel didn’t leave Jack’s mind in his day off. He knew he shouldn’t project his need for love on the angel but still, now he had mentally crossed that barrier, he couldn’t keep from doing it again every so often. Gabriel had left to work with Ana, but when he returned Jack was caught with the feeling of imagining a life where the angel stayed with him. In the end it was Gabriel who did something that caught him off guard.

“Could you teach me to dance, Jack?”

“Why? I mean, of course, but any particular reason?” Jack felt his pulse on his ears, it was not something he had expected to happen but now he was so enthusiastic about it.  
“Ana suggested I needed to find a hobby, she said you danced well.”

Jack knew Ana had no idea of what was going on his head. She wasn’t necessarily the best when it came to understanding relationships and love. However, it still didn’t make him wanna swear or hug her even less.

“I suppose we can try. Would you rather something fast or slow?”

“Better to start off slow right?”

Jack was sweating already as he nodded and went to the disks he had. Not many in all honesty and none of them quite new, the most recent one had been a Fleetwood Mac LP Ana had given him. “It’s not quite dance music, but it’s slow enough to get you some idea of how it happens.” He turned to Gabriel and helped him position himself. It was a lot to be this close to the angel, but Jack was determined to make this do. He put Gabriel’s hands on his waist and held the angels shoulders. “The music has a rhythm and you try to move with it, it’s not that hard.”

Gabriel glared at him as they started moving, the angel having no clear sense of rhythm yet. Stepping on Jack toes more than once and getting progressively more frustrated as time went by. He didn’t look at Jack as they danced, looking down at their feet and trying to control his movements. Eventually stepping back and letting go of Jack standing there with clear frustration in his eyes. The detective took a deep breath before approaching the angel again.

“This is useless.” Gabriel groaned.

Jack touched Gabriel’s shoulders and spoke up, a smile on his lips. “It’s okay, no one is perfect the first time they try something. You are paying too much attention to your movements, no need to overthink it.” Gabriel didn’t seem to believe it so Jack helped him position himself again and whispered. “Try looking at my face, connecting with your partner is important.”

The music had kept going, and this time it was so much more intense. Their eyes met and they just kept going, it wasn’t perfect, there was no way it could be. However, there was something special about having someone this close, Gabriel eyes were staring at Jack’s face with such intensity. Jack could feel himself blushing, but there was also a want in his gut. He wanted to move just slightly closer to be able to brush their lips together. His eyes fluttered close, the music in the background made everything slightly surreal. He felt Gabriel’s breathing hitching for a moment and he was about to kiss him when the phone rang.

Jack swore loudly and separated from his partner, walking over to the telephone and picking it up. “Jack Morrison speaking.”

“Jack, we have a victim.” Ana sounded both angry and tired. Jack felt like someone had punched his gut. “I tried calling Amelie, she didn’t answer. I’m worried about her, Jack.”  
He tried to not freak out, tried to not imaging what could happen. He should have kept more of an eye on Amélie, this was his fault. “Where is it?”

She gave him the address, and said she’d meet them there. Jack hang up, turning to Gabriel. “We have to go now.”

Gabriel’s expression went equally somber as he grabbed the suit Jack had borrowed him and the two of them went out to the car. Not a world was exchanged between the two of them until they got to the crime scene. Jack felt stupid for getting distracted by his own flights of fancy. The crime scene was not that far from the police station, which was of course made everything more painful. As they left the car, Ana was already talking to Cadet Oxton, who turned to them as they approached and perked up.

“Hey there, sirs! I found the body during my patrol. Another angel…” She looked down clearly feeling guilty. “At least, O’Deorain got it real fast. She was apparently just like two doors down having dinner. We got lucky this time I think.”


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t Amelie.

Jack felt such relief that was quickly replaced with guilt. Because it was still a person laying there, still someone that got Gabriel’s eyes to go dark with a hood of melancholy over them. Ana sighed next to him, and Jack could only light his cigarette as they watched O’Deorain doing a once over on the body. Jack felt his jaw clenching, he didn’t want her anywhere near the body. Still, they didn’t have enough reasons to actually stop her. So they just watched as she worked and then turned to them, with that smirk on her lips.

“Seems your killer has returned. Same killing method apparently, I will be sure after the autopsy.” Jack could see Gabriel’s jaw clenching, like he wanted to stop Moira from ever touching that body.

“Sure, Dr. O’Deorain.” Ana touched their shoulders, clearly taking control of the situation. “If you excuse us, we will talk to Cadet Oxton and leave you to your work.”

They walked away, Gabriel’s eyes still lingering on the body far longer than he should. Jack felt compelled to whisper an apology, Gabriel just gave him a tired look and didn’t say another word for the rest of the time they were there. Ana and Jack talked a bit with Oxton, who looked worried but overall there wasn’t really any reason for her to be. She had alibis for everything else. Jack couldn’t stop noticing how Gabriel changed, staying a distance from him and talking a lot less. He made a mental note to talk to him about that, because it had to be hitting Gabriel hard.

He tried sparking a conversation when they were finally back on the apartment, but all Jack got from the angel was a cold “I’m going to be sleeping on the couch tonight.”

-

It was miserable. Jack was miserable, Ana looked like she couldn’t look at the family in front of them and Gabriel hadn’t spoken a word without being prompted the entire day. Jack felt like such a failure standing there, he had gotten distracted by normal life. He never had this kind of thing, work always came first. Both he and Ana had an unfortunate visit to the Chief - who had made it pretty clear they need an arrest until the end of the month or he was going to put someone more capable on the job. It was a threat, if they failed this one it would be a mark on their career forever. It was all coming apart right in front of him.

Jack couldn’t pull the fake smiles as the woman in front of him told them about how this angel had fallen about ten years ago and they were in a relationship. She was crying and once again all Jack could do was say platitudes. It felt so much like lies on his tongue, and he could see Gabriel glaring him. He couldn’t quite decipher what was inside those eyes. He still wanted to talk to the angel, to help him deal with whatever conflicting emotions were inside of him. In the end, they got nothing from the lady. Saying goodbyes felt almost like a relief.

As they returned to the car, Ana turned to Jack. “I’ll drop you two at your apartment.” She had a smile, a forced one, but still was a smile.

Jack was nodding as Gabriel’s voice came from the back. “No.”

They both turned to face the angel, who was somber and looking out of the window. Jack wanted to ask why, but in truth he knew why. Whatever they had been developing among the two of them, which Jack might as well try to deny but he knew it was a care more intense then he had expected when they first met. He could see why the obsession humans had with romantic love made Gabriel not to want to be as close to him. It had damaged whatever friendship they had formed, and more importantly it had damaged the case.

“Were will you stay then?” Ana asked, her eyes flickering between the two of them. “Back to the hotel?”

Gabriel thought for a moment, considering his options before nodding. “It will be a better option.” Ana glared at Jack, because of course she thought something had happened. Jack made a quick gesture promising he would explain later. That clearly wasn’t enough, but Ana at least backed off of him for a moment. “If it is not an issue, Ana, I would prefer you accompanied me.”

Jack took a deep breath, looking out of the window to not catch whatever expression Ana had. He tried not to be angry, it wasn’t fair to the angel or to the victims of this case.

-  
Three days had passed since that disastrous conversation. Jack had been on edge ever since, Ana and he had a conversation on the second day which made it clear that Gabriel was avoiding him. Ana had given him a look, and he knew she had questions and theories. Jack didn’t know what to say to her, except that he had made some terrible choices. How to say to her that he had made himself a fool falling for an actual angel? So he just sighed deeply and didn’t quite explain anything to her.

It didn’t help that she had been staying with Gabriel all the time now, he was following her around. Jack had gone headfirst back to work, going over Gérard’s notes and trying to tie it back to O’Deorain - or really anyone. He hadn’t expected for Ana to send the two of them out to deal with the coroner and take her reports on what had happened. Jack had tried to talk her out of it, but Ana had glared at him and spoken just one sentence. “Fareeha’s karate competition.” And Jack caught the drift.

Still, it didn’t make going anywhere with Gabriel less awkward. The angel refused to speak to him and as much as Jack did not want to pressure him, he felt like he should do something, perhaps apologize or promise he would take his job more seriously, not letting the mind's distractions get to him. Instead, he just walked next to Gabriel, both of their expressions closed off as they made it towards what was possibly the killer’s lair. Just as cold as he remembered from last time, O’Deorain was standing next to a body, scalpel on her hand clearly about to start. She smirked as they arrived. “If it’s not the dynamic duo. Let me get the report for you.”

She moved around with all the calm of the world going towards a desk, grabbing a beige folder and handing it over.

“Can you summarize it?” Jack asked taking it from her.

O’Deorain laughed in that way that sent chills down spines and he regretted saying anything at all. “Dear Jack, I’m sure you can figure out what’s in the paper, it’s the same killer as before. The only new info is that this one wasn’t a full angel. She was a nephilim. Besides, you did ask me to avoid describing angel torture in grand detail in front of our new expert.”

Jack felt his cheeks burning as he glared at her, O’Deorain already dismissing them. Jack sneaked a glance at Gabriel, who was staring at him with another of those ineffable looks. As soon as the angel noticed he was looking though, it became a closed off expression and he turned and walked out of the morgue. And all Jack could really do was follow. Considering what this meant for the investigation, and for Amélie’s situation.

-

The call came at 2 in the morning.

Gabriel had left his house four days ago, Jack was spending yet another insomnia fuelled night on the station going over anyone who might have the final piece that would help this puzzle be solved. He even tried contacting Ana’s witch contact, but she had just said she needed more time and ignored him. Jack was starting to believe this idea that it was Moira was just a desperate attempt of his mind to cope with the absolute nothing in the realms of evidence. He wanted to solve this, some part of him was sure if he did he could fix his friendship with Gabriel.

The phone ringing scared him, but Jack took the call nonetheless. “Detective Jack Morrison speaking.”

“Hey Jack, it’s Sam.” He hadn’t spoken to Ana’s husband in a while, and the sound of his voice made Jack not at all glad he was speaking to the man now.

“What happened?” A thousand scenarios flashed across his mind as he was already getting up and starting to grab things to leave.

Sam seemed to take a few deep breaths and eventually he cursed softly and continued speaking. “Ana was on guard duty, right?” Jack nodded, even if the other man couldn’t see him, trying to not go in full panic that something had happened. “I just got to the hospital, apparently something happened tonight, they were attacked or something. Ana is in surgery…”

Jack swore loudly, letting his head fall back for a moment. “Which hospital are you?” Sam gave him the address seeming incredibly thankful he wouldn’t be alone anymore. “Hey, Sam, just one last question before i go. The angel is okay?” He felt a tight knot in his throat, even if he knew that if Gabriel had died he’d have heard it from someone already.

“He is, Jack. Sitting in the waiting room distracting Fareeha right now.” Sam sighed deeply and Jack felt relief flooding him. “I’ll see you in a bit, Jack?”

He whispered an affirmative before hanging up and basically running out of the station. Ana had left the car here, which was a bit of a relief. Driving to the hospital had his blood pumping on his ears, the worry for his partner not going away at any point. He was always surprised by how much Sam seemed to be able to keep his composure in tense situations. Perhaps it was part of what had gotten them together back then. Jack could not deny knowing Gabriel was safe was an unbelievable relief, if something had happened to the angel Jack had no idea how he’d be able to deal with it. He didn’t even really want to think about it, as it made his heart feel small on his chest and made him more aware of his ridiculous infatuation.

He parked the car just a block from the hospital, sort of glad it was the middle of the night. No one was there to see him rushing towards the hospital. Or to see him as he stopped to regain his composure just before walking through the doors, not wanting to show Fareeha how worried he was about it.

Which he assumed to be the right call, as soon as he walked inside he heard the girl shouting. “Uncle Jack.” As she rushed over. He patted her head, trying to give his best ‘everything will be okay’ smile. Behind her he could see both Sam and Gabriel standing, the first gave him a weak smile looking like he had been holding back tears for a while. The second though was just staring at Jack like he hadn’t thought they’d see each other again.

“Fareeha, why don’t we go grab you something to eat?” Sam gave Jack a look as Fareeha walked over to him, clearly very tired. “We will be right back.”

Jack turned to Gabriel as soon as the two of them were away, and actually smiled. “I’m glad you are well, Gabriel.” There was no reply to that comment - not that he was expecting it anyway. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Gabriel sighed deeply looking away from him. “She was keeping watch by the window, according to her there was something wrong. Though she didn’t tell me what it was. We were discussing some matters when someone shot her. It was… difficult to bring her here in a decent condition, but I could go after whoever shot her.” There was an anger on his words that Jack could relate to.

“It’s better that she is safe. I can’t imagine losing Ana…” His voice faltered and Jack hated it, but there wasn’t anything to be done. Ana was his oldest friend - until very recently his only friend. He was surprised by Gabriel’s hand clasping his shoulder as he looked up there was a softness in his eyes.

“She’s an amazing woman, she will be fine.”

And Jack knew he probably shouldn’t but there was a moment in which he considered leaning in and hugging Gabriel. Instead they just stared at each other for a moment before Fareeha and Sam came back.  
-

This was starting to have unprecedented levels of ridiculous.

They had spent the night in the hospital, mostly just keeping an eye on Fareeha as Sam talked to doctors. Ana hadn’t regained consciousness while they were there, which was unsurprising. The doctors said she would lose one eye, but besides that there shouldn’t be a lot of damage. Jack had gotten to see his sleeping friend, and though the injury was clearly significant she looked like she was just sleeping. For a moment he had even considered praying, but it felt vacant especially considering he had an angel to protect now. Now the two of them were going back to the car, because there was just so much they could do while on a hospital waiting room. Even Sam had gone home.

“So, I hope you don’t mind going back to my place. The hotel is dangerous.” Jack explained while they approached the car.

“That is not an option.” Gabriel’s reply probably shouldn’t have surprised him, but Jack was tired and he had hoped against hope that last night meant the angel would stop this distancing thing.

“What’s not an option is you going back to a place we _know_ the killer is aware you stay.”

Gabriel just kept staring at him, that serious expression once again ruling over his face. “I do not want for the killer to discover where you live, Jack.”  
The detective groaned and opened the door of the car for Gabriel. “Can we have this discussion on the car?” It was a dumb idea for them to start arguing on the street, if the killer was keeping an eye on Gabriel, she was probably watching them now.

“We are not going to your place.” The angel declared, but still went inside the car.

Jack was surprised how stubborn the other could be, but perhaps he shouldn’t. So he ended up just sighing loudly and going in the car. Once inside he made sure no one was following them as he began driving. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Jack spoke up. “So, if we are not going to my apartment, and we are definitely not going back to the hotel. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Another hotel should work.” Gabriel replied looking out of the window.

Jack groaned instinctively, because of course the angel was right. He pondered for a moment trying to decide where they should go, it wasn’t like he knew about a lot of places in town. In the end a memory flashed in his mind, a place he had gone once. Where at least no one would ask any questions.

There was silence again as they made their drive towards the place. In all fairness it was maddening, being ignored from afar was far less enerving than with the two of them in the same space. Jack wanted to say something to the angel, to demand an explanation but it was useless. He turned on the radio, and tried to ignore the tension in the air. As they got into the shitty parking lot, he could see Gabriel scoffing at the place. Which was unsurprising, Jack had done the same when he was brought here first.

“Just trust in me.” Jack walked out of the car. He knew no one would ask a question about it. The man on the counter didn’t even blink as Jack asked for a room or when Gabriel followed him in. He grabbed the room keyes, and they went up the stairs. There was some noise in the rooms, as it was that sort of place and Jack frankly didn’t care. He felt Gabriel’s hand tugging his jacket, and he turned just as they made it to the door of their room.

“What is this place?”

“It’s a place where men who want to be with men come to have their private and secret time.” Jack smirked in somewhat anger, speaking between his gritted teeth. “I doubt the killer will think you are interested in me so this should be a safe place for us to rest.”

There was confusion in his eyes as Jack unlocked the door, but Gabriel acquiesced to it and the two of them went inside the not good at all room. It had tacky wallpaper and just one queen bed that probably had seen too much use. Jack took off his jacket and his tie and turned on the shitty ass Tv. “Make yourself at home.” He sounded ever much so bitter as he was.

He was surprised with how little the silence lasted, he was expecting Gabriel to just continue ignoring him forever. However, this time around the angel spoke up after no more than five minutes of silence. “You are staying?”

Jack turned around to face Gabriel, just feeling tired of all this. “I can’t leave you alone, Gabriel. You know that, it would be too dangerous for you.”

Gabriel gritted his teeth, clearly angry at Jack. “It is more dangerous for you to be here.”

He should’ve expected this to show up with how Gabriel had been acting those last few days, but Jack couldn’t quite contain himself as he spoke up. “Listen, I know you don’t want to be around me. If that’s the problem, I’ll just ask Oxton to keep an eye on you.” He then turned back to the television, not really wanting to have this conversation.

It didn’t seem like his lucky day though, as Gabriel stepped between him and the screen, eyebrows furrowed. “What you mean I don’t want to be around you?”

“Come on, Gabriel, don’t act like you haven’t been avoiding me. I’m not that clueless.” He glared at the angel, while lighting up another cigarette. “And to be honest, you have the right to avoid me. I understand that I might have come at you strongly before, but I’m capable of doing my job and keeping my distance.” Jack hadn't planned for his voice to show how much this hurt him, because it wasn't Gabriel's fault really. Jack had been too forward and he had ruined both their friendship and the case. It was Jack's fault that all this mess had come about.

"You are making less sense by the minute." Gabriel groaned in frustration, staring at Jack like nothing he said made any sort of sense. Which sort of brought up an anger inside Jack that he hadn’t known it was there before. Jack got up facing Gabriel, feeling both his cheeks blush, but not a good kind of blush. It was mostly a frustration and anger, but before he any words could leave his mouth Gabriel seemed to realize _something_ about this conversation and spoke up again. “It’s not your fault, it’s mine Jack. I’m starting to lose sight, I’m not representing Justice anymore.”

“What does _that_ even mean?” Jack stared at him, not sure of how to even begin wrapping his mind around the things the angel thought about.

Gabriel groaned in absolute frustrating, and Jack was sort of glad that the distant mask was falling, that Gabriel wasn’t trying to hide himself behind whatever he thought angels should act like.

“Jack, your… whatever it was you called, coming on to me? I’m going to assume this refers to the… Romantic advances you made.” Jack nodded. “It wasn’t unwanted in my part, and that was the problem.”

For one part, Jack was sort of happy hearing that his advances, even if shy and subconscious had been noticed, but as he looked at Gabriel and he looked absolutely miserable about it. Jack just asked another question, really incapable of offering any other words.  
“Why is that a problem Gabriel? You seemed happy.”

And that was when Gabriel’s eyes met his and there was such fondness in his eyes, but also a deep deep sadness. “Since when is Justice happy? Justice is righteous. Justice is hard.” His eyes darted away from Jack’s gaze, his words were there but clearly they hurt Gabriel.

Jack couldn’t himself from using his left hand to cup Gabriel’s cheek. The angel didn’t stop him from doing so, just closed his eyes and sighed. Jack wasn’t sure if there were any words he could actually offer to them that would make this better, but he had to try. “Gabriel, you are not only and angel of Justice. You don’t have to just be that anymore, perhaps you never had.” The angel’s eyes darted open and he stared back at Jack, glaring in anger for a moment. “No, listen to me, it’s hard to realize you are not something you thought you would be, it’s hard to change. And I’m not saying any of this because of whatever feelings I might have for you, but you deserve to be happy. You have more complex feelings than whatever concept you try to live up to and that’s fine.”

“It’s not that, Jack. If I let these feelings get the better of me… I’m going to fall. If I let this go on, if I reciprocate the feelings, I will never return home. Saving Ana was already too much of interference, I should have gone and fought the killer, not focused on saving her. ” He looked down and Jack felt so guilty, because he couldn’t imagine how that felt. And still, he couldn’t agree with Gabriel, not in any sense of it.

“But you’ve already done it, right? You have already done things that would count as you falling, and it didn’t make you less you. You still have the same values, and the wings and all that.” Jack just wanted Gabriel to realize it didn’t actually matter, that had he fallen or not he was just the same. Not because he wanted Gabriel or something like that, at this point he just needed this angel to realize he would be fine if he felt things that weren’t just what he had been taught he should feel.

There was a long uncomfortable silence between the two of them. He could see the cogs in Gabriel’s mind working as considered the faults of his logic and Jack’s logic. However, there was just so much they could say, without the other giving a bit of ground. Jack was considering backing down himself, but before he could, something in Gabriel broke a bit and his expression went from stern frustration to just sadness. Jack considered for a moment if he should move closer if he should do something. Then, Gabriel just came in for a hug, holding Jack while he breathed heavily.

And they just stayed like that.

-

It was a peaceful night. They didn’t do much besides talking, there was a lot on Gabriel’s mind. A lot of thoughts about falling, mostly things Jack couldn’t quite understand or tried to in all honesty. Jack knew he should try, but mostly this was a lot of Gabriel saying things he needed to say that needed to be said. It was very much a quiet but intimate moment, that might not have taken them anywhere but it felt right.  
They ended up falling asleep on the bed together, not necessarily touching each other but together nonetheless.Well, Jack did as Gabriel didn’t actually need to do so, the angel had spent some time resting, but as Jack woke up the angel was sitting on the bed, watching him sleep. In the morning, they left for the station under the eyes of the suspicious man on the front desk. It was a silent between the two of them, but it didn’t feel like the same as it had been yesterday it was more like the ones they used to have in the past. Sometimes they would look at each other and he could tell there was something that had changed, between them and didn’t make it any less compelling.

The Police station was, as it always had been, a sad place to be. Some people even went to say placitudes to him, and Jack considered for a moment just telling them to fuck off. It was just pointless for everyone, so he just did the things he was supposed to, talked about the things he was supposed to and walked away. During that time, Gabriel was by his side, more of a comforting presence then Jack would have figured him for at the beginning of all this. As they got upstairs, none really paid them any mind, and Jack kept wondering if someone in this department would actually miss him at all if he just decided to say fuck to all this and go away.

“Jack?” He heard the angel calling him and turned to face Gabriel. “If you need a day off, I'm sure they would understand. We can go somewhere.”

All he could for a reply was a soft smile. They both knew that wasn’t actually going to help them in any way,shape or form. Still, he just sat on his chair and sighed looking at the evidence. Then he was filled with a weird anger about this entire situation, if only they could find a way to just get this over with. He didn’t even want to think about like Moira going to visit Ana or the time she came for Fareeha’s birthday. How could she do it and keep a straight face, it was just a monstrous thing.

Gabriel’s hand was on his shoulder and the angel nodded at his direction softly, clearly trying to be reassuring, but Gérard’s notes hadn’t contained any big secret or Ana would have told them about it before the attack.

“Hey, Detective Morrison I suppose?” An unfamiliar voice called his attention and the two of them turned to see a young woman with a peculiar haircut dressed in mostly purple. It took Jack a second to recognize where he had seen her before. The first crime scene he caught a glimpse of her, it was Ana’s witness, the witch. She grinned as she continued speaking. “I’ve come to make good on my part of little talk.” She threw a beige envelope on his desk, still grinning.

“What’s this?” Jack asked, while Gabriel was already picking it up and opening it.

She just smiled and arched one of her eyebrows up gesturing towards the angel that was looking over some pictures. The expression in Gabriel’s face went from concern to anger, to something akin to happy. Jack moved back so he could actually see what was in those pics. He was expecting some vaguely shady dealings, but those pictures showed a lot more than he had dared to hope. They showed O’Deorain in the crime scenes, and whoever the photographer was, had managed to catch the exact moments she was slipping things from the body to the inside of her coat. Other pictures also showed her going to an apparently innocuous store. The next ones proceeded to show her and the owner having an exchange in which she handed him several vials with bright white liquid and received a fair bit of other mismatched bits in return.

At that point, Gabriel explained wide eyed. “Those are angel’s energies, it’s easy to spot. You can’t take that of a dead angel, it has to be while they live.”

There wasn’t any real other explanation that they could give besides the fact she had been involved in it. He looked up to the woman, who was still smirking at them like a cat that got the cream. “How did you get those?” Jack asked trying to gather anything from her.

She just chuckled and shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”

Jack felt a tinge of his cop training to make her give how she had gotten that information. However, Gabriel sighed and shook his head to him, whispering to Jack. “Let’s take our victories where we can get them. This should be enough to get her arrested.” He was right, and Jack did know that, it just felt like a hypocrite thing to take her info to arrest someone else. His eyes skittered over to Ana’s desk and the knowledge that Moira had almost killed his best friend. Jack could let this go, if only for Ana and to make sure Gabriel was safe.

“You guys make a very cute couple. I’ll not even charge anything for the info. Just don’t tell them who got you this one” The witch spoke before turning her back to them and waving as she walked away.

That was a bit of a whiplash, Jack felt his cheeks burning slightly. Even after they had that conversation last night, this was far from a relationship and Jack didn’t like that someone else could tell it so easily. He was about to apologize to Gabriel, but as his eyes met the angel’s face Gabriel was actually smiling at him.

Jack coughed, looking away. His mind was going to several inappropriate places right now. “I’m going to get the Chief and the DA’s office to look at this over, we should be able to bring her in today.” He couldn’t contain the excitement in his voice.

-

The DA’s office and the chief weren’t too pleased with the whole photographs coming from a secret source, but it wasn’t like they didn’t want to make the arrest - even if it would probably be just from supernatural organ trafficking. Getting the killer off the streets would look good for everyone. Gabriel had requested to be there when they arrested O’Deorain, not that Jack had considered even for a moment not having the angel by his side.

They got her when she was leaving her job, and part of Jack’s satisfaction almost vanished when he realized she was letting them do this. She didn’t fight back, just had that wicked smile on her lips as they put her back in the car. The drive to the police station was tense, Jack felt ever so more aware that he was in a car with two incredibly powerful non-human beings. He was sort of relieved neither of them seemed like they were about to get into a physical fight, just silent staring through the rearview mirror. At the police station, they got her to an interview room and the first thing she did was clearly request a lawyer and then declare she was using her right to remain silent. Jack always found it hard not to be a little bit frustrated when people did it so.

And of course her lawyer - a man named Maximilien - would only be able to come the next day. So the chief patted Jack on the back and told him to go home. They would call once the lawyer arrived, but he made it clear that they couldn’t risk fucking this up. Jack hadn’t been thrilled, yeah, they made an arrest, but it wouldn’t feel right until he was sure O’Deorain was not getting out.

“We should go to your apartment.” Gabriel declared as they walked downstairs, much to Jack’s surprise. “That place we spent last night had a terrible bed.”

“I’ll take as a compliment.”

“Take it as you prefer.” Gabriel was actually grinning as they walked side by side.

It was nice having Gabriel back at his place, it made it feel more like a home. It made things seem like everything would end not terrible for once. It was fun to watch Gabriel being familiar with the space, taking off his jacket and throwing it to the shitty couch. The angel turned to him after doing so and spoke calmly.

“Jack, I think you deserve wine and a decent meal today. In all honesty, I think we both deserved it and if Ana was capable I’d suggest you invited her.”

“You want to celebrate?” Jack couldn’t help but smile at that. “I suppose we could go grab food somewhere and then come home.”

“No. I’d rather cook with you.”

And Jack was very interested to see where this was going.

They were both on the couch, and Jack hadn’t realized how close they had gotten. Gabriel was looking at him and Jack considered kissing him, but it felt weird to do it now. He wasn’t sure if the angel would actually have a romantic interest in him.

It surprised him when the angel made the first move, leaning in and kissing Jack. Not a long kiss, just their lips pressing against each other. He then moved back and asked in that voice that chills go down Jack’s spine, low and rogue but at the same time full of vulnerability. “Jack, could we try… Being intimate like humans are?” Jack might have nodded a bit too excited, which elicited a laugh from Gabriel as he continued. “You will have to take me through it, as I suspect the films I watched in the hotel are not quite accurate.”

Jack was going to die with all of that charm.

The angel wasn’t necessarily super coordinated while kissing, he clearly had never done such a thing before, but he had a lot of passion for it. His hands grabbing both sides of Jack’s waist. It felt nice having this proximity to each other, and he felt absolutely desperate for more of it. Jack felt almost hungry as he moved so he could straddle Gabriel’s thighs, his hands grabbing the angel’s cheeks. As he moved away for a moment before diving to kiss and mark the skin of Gabriel’s neck he could see a flash of the blissed away face the angel had, a smile on his lips. He could imagine it was gone in a moment as he heard the angel gasping and the grasp on Jack’s waist got stronger.

Gabriel’s skin tasted slightly salty and it tasted like something he could quite place and he wondered if it was just what he tasted like. He continued sucking and mark the spots on his neck, eliciting the most delightful noises from Gabriel who had started just touching Jack’s body, his hands roaming up and down his side.

His mouth wandered down as his hands started awkwardly unbuttoning Gabriel’s shirt. He mouthed the outside lines of the tattoos and paid attention special attention to the perky nipples. Just the sounds Gabriel was making were enough to go straight to Jack’s dick. The soft moans of someone who didn’t know the body they had could feel this good was so satisfying. The angel’s hand grabbed his hair as Jack gave a tentative nibble on the nipple and he smirked against it. Making a mental for later on as he continued trailing down, sliding from his position on Gabriel’s thighs so he was kneeling on the floor between Gabriel’s legs. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted to just suck him, how much he wanted to keep Gabriel making those noises forever.

“Jack, what?” His voice was so blissed as he looked down at Jack, and Jack could really only grin as he unzipped the pants and started mouthing over the underwear and Jack himself moaned because it felt warm and he hadn’t realized how much he desperately needed to do this. Gabriel moaned perhaps even a bit too loud as Jack took the head of his cock and gave soft suck. “Yeah, that’s...Ahhh… Very good.”

“You haven’t even seen half of it.” Jack really wanted to see and catalog in his mind all the noises and expressions Gabriel had. He pulled the underwear back and Gabriel’s dick was hard and so close to his face and there was a moment where Jack just considered nuzzling it and having it against his face, but that felt unfair to the angel. So he went at it. Jack had been told once that he was very good at this, but it had been a long time since he had actually got to put his skills to good use. Gabriel was thick, not too long but enough so fitting him in was a bit of a task, but a task Jack was certainly up to.

And it was so worth it, Gabriel who had been leaning back a bit just watching sat up immediately, his hands grabbing Jack’s hair tightly. Jack didn’t actually have to do much, he just remained there sucking a bit and eventually he managed to get a bit of movement, paying special attention to the head. He didn’t expect the angel to last long considering this was his first time having any experience of the sort. So when Gabriel started calling his name seeming slightly confused by whatever he was feeling, like it was becoming too much. Jack moved away having the head of Gabriel’s cock against his lips and he looked up seeing the absolute desperation in the angel’s face just before Jack took it all at once. Gabriel shouted his name, Jack kept watching his expression going slack as he just fell back on the couch, looking spent. Jack tapped his knee slightly and Gabriel’s eyes found his as Jack opened his mouth slightly to show the cum inside before swallowing all of it. He then slid back up, sitting on Gabriel’s thighs (they were so amazing and Jack realized he would have to spend hours just worshipping those at some point).

“How can I…” Gabriel looked at Jack’s own erection, licking his lips instinctively.

Jack could feel how hard he was inside his pants and underwear and he just grinned wickedly, leaning in towards Gabriel and kissing him more. Between the kisses he managed to slip a proposal. “The night is long, as I said, you haven’t even seen the half of it.”

-  
Visiting Ana after the arrest was weirdly freeing. Jack was sitting on a chair next to her bed. Ana was drinking tea, the bandages around her head as she listened to him explaining what had happened, how they had caught Moira and how right now she and her scumbag attorney were trying to work to get her out, but they had found a few things in her apartment that forensics was going to compare to say if it would nail her officially. It was all formality at this point. Gabriel was spending the day on the station, they had to catalogue everything he had done to make sure it wouldn’t screw them over when it came to the trial.

“You miss him, don’t you Jack?” Ana asked her in that all knowing tone she had sometimes.

Jack half-hearted glared at her. “How could you tell?”

“Please, Jack you are not that good at hiding your feelings as you feel about things.” She smirked at him, her eye still had that piercing capacity nonetheless. “Besides, I know you, he is your type and you are clearly developing feelings.”

He whispered softly in reply, not quite looking at her as he did. _“We already did it.”_ And that of course got to her ears.

Ana laughed and started asking all sorts of questions to the point that when a nurse came in, Jack wanted to throw at just throw a pillow at his friend’s face so she would stop it. It ended up with the two of them laughing together as Jack blushed fiercely. In the end Ana smiled at him with that way she did when things got slightly serious.  
“I’m glad you are making more connections with people. I was worried you were going to be all alone.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, you should be resting.” Jack got up from his chair and walked over, kissing her forehead. “I’ll go now, I’ll make sure to bring Gabriel along next time so you can barrage him with questions.”

“You make sure you do it or I’ll kick you out.”

As he was walking down the hallway towards the main entrance, Angela and ran over to him seeming concerned. She had to take a minute to catch her breath before she started speaking.

“Jack, you’ve arrested Moira for the killings?” She sounded exasperated and as he nodded she groaned in pure frustration. “She didn’t do it. She was with me in the days of the killing.”

“With you?” Jack was incredibly confused staring at the DA. “What were you two doing together? I thought you hated her.” He remembered times where they were in the same place or when O’Deorain went to testify in cases for the prosecution and the two of them were incredibly antagonistic towards each other.

“I don’t hate her, Jack. I’m dating her.” Angela spoke between gritted teeth in a furious whisper. “I know she didn’t kill anyone, perhaps she is making some bad decisions morally cause god knows that she tends to make those, but she is not a killer. You have the wrong person.”

And suddenly Jack’s flight or fight instincts were kicking on. He held Angela’s shoulder and spoke quickly. “Gabriel is at the station, can you go there and tell him to wait for me? I’m going to visit Amélie and Gérard to try and take them somewhere safe.” And he rushed off, basically running out of the building towards his car.

If something happened because he had made a bad decision he would never be able to face himself. The drive to the Lacroix house was not a long one. It was a suburban house with pink walls and a picket fence. Jack couldn’t see any lights inside as he ran over to the door it was locked. Jack knocked insistently for about five minutes, praying to god that things were fine. There was no answer to his knocks and the worry was starting to go up his throat.

“Fuck.” He whispered to himself going over to one of the windows and looking inside. Everything seemed fine, but in all honesty Jack had to go inside to see. He was considering just breaking the lock open when he saw Amélie opening the gate, she was carrying a bag and wearing sunglasses all perfectly composed.

“Jack? Did something happen?” Her heavy accent was almost a relief as she walked over to him.

He took a deep breath, approaching her. “We caught the wrong killer, I need to get you and Gérard somewhere safe.”  
He could tell she was squinting at him from the other side of her fancy glasses, and then her expression went back to that neutrality of hers. “Sure thing, just come inside with me.” She unlocked the front door and they walked inside the place, it was dead silent inside as Amélie declared loudly that she was home. She turned to him with that impassive voice. “Can you go upstairs to grab Gérard, I’m going to pick some things down here, you can bring him downstairs.”

“No problem.” Jack felt so incredibly relieved with all this as he went up the stairs. He looked at the doors and wondered if Amélie and Gerárd had ever planned on having kids. He hadn’t been to their house before but he knew the set up of a lot of houses similar to those so it wasn’t necessarily easy to guess. As he opened the door the stench hit him like a brick, the smell of rot and decay. His eyes met with the corpse lying on the bed, dressed in a suit with flowers all around him. He could recognize exactly that the person there was Gérard. He gasped and was about to run back to Amélie, but as he turned she was already there behind him, looking serious with a gun in her hand.

“Oh Jack, in over your head are you?”

Before he could say or do anything she shot him on the leg and Jack crumbled, and as he felt she kneed him incredibly hard on the ribs enough so he could feel them shattering and her elbow hit him on the back of his head and everything was dark.

- _Now_ -

His eyes slowly fluttered open, how much had he lost? How long had he been out? Jack tried to move but the pain was still there. Amélie was nowhere he could see and that terrified him beyond measure. He heard heavy footsteps from the outside and saw the warehouse door being open. He could see Gabriel’s silhouette illuminated by lightning the wings still spread open. Jack tried to speak up, warm that this was a trap, but the pain was too much and all he could muster was a loud groan of pain. Gabriel seemed to finally see him, and ran inside the warehouse. Before he made it to the fallen human on the ground, a small cloud of a purple substance seemed to erupt from a device neither of them had seen.

Gabriel started coughing loudly and his steps lost their sureness. A shot rang across the warehouse and hit on the angel’s right wing. Making him lose his footing for a moment, as Jack could now hear Amélie moving behind him, probably coming in for the kill. However, much to Jack’s surprise and perhaps hers as well, the angel lunged forward flying across the room tackling her. It was painful to tun, but Jack had to watch this, he needed to know what was happening.

Their fight was not pretty to watch, the punches and kicks connected easily on both sides and Gabriel was still coughing and in clear pain. Still, he managed to put up quite a fight. There was thing on Gabriel’s fighting that was clearly both reckless and calculated. At point he managed to get Amélie Pinned against one the crates and Jack held his breath for a moment thinking this might be over. However, before Gabriel could proper immobilize her, Amélie broke his grasp and inverted positions, shoving her elbow on the place she had shot Gabriel’s wing and making the angel shout in pain. Jack tried to crawl towards them, he could not do much but perhaps he would able to get Gabriel an opening. Amélie grabbed a weird thing from her pocket, looked like a spray. Before she could get it in Gabriel’s face, the angel shouted.

“Now!”

The woman hadn’t been there a second before, Jack was sure of it. However, he saw the witch, Ana’s witness, standing there her hand raised and arcane symbols floating in the air. Amélie turned to stop whatever magic was being cast, but as she did Gabriel set himself free and grappled her. Making sure the witch - what was her name, Jack’s foggy mind felt so shitty for having no idea what her name was - was able to finish her incantation. As she did, Amélie went numb on Gabriel’s arms, just laying there. The angel let go of her body, laying her on the floor before running over to Jack.

Gabriel kneeled on the floor next to him. “Jack, can you understand me?” He couldn’t do much, except just stare and give him a soft smile through all the pain. The angel looked him over, realizing the injury and a hand touched his side. “I got you.”

There was a warm on his side, his mind was hazy as he watched Gabriel’s face. Whatever he was doing was clearly taking a toll on him, so Jack grabbed the angel’s hand that was near the injury and whispered. “It’s fine, Gabe. You did more than you had to do.”

The angel looked at him, his eyes actually watering before he replied, anger inside him pouring out. “Well I want to do more, Jack. We are walking out of here together, you still have to teach me to dance. So you sit there and let me do this for you.”

Jack laughed and it hurt, his eyes couldn’t quite keep open. So he just kept his hand over Gabriel’s as he went unconscious.

-

Gabriel was there, he was the first person Jack saw as his eyes opened, sitting on a chair by the window of this room they were in. It was dark but Jack could tell his was a hospital by the beeping of machines around him. His mouth felt so ungodly dry that he could barely say a word. He weakly moved his hand in the angel’s direction, which managed to capture his attention for a moment. Gabriel turned and Jack could, even in the darkness, see the relief on his eyes as he got up from his chair and walked towards the bed. Grabbing a water cup on the nightstand and helping Jack take a few sips from it.

“What happened?” The detective asked looking around for a moment. “I remember finding Amélie, I remembered you fighting her and the witch helping, you healed me? And then I don’t know what happened.”

Gabriel sat on the bed. “We’ll it’s good to see you too, Jack. I suppose an explanation is in order. When I realized you were gone, I knew I couldn’t go alone after you. I knew my desire to keep you safe would put me at risk. Luckily, Olivia - that’s the witch’s name - came to the station while I was considering what to do. I wasn’t sure about asking for her help, but I felt like she owed us one after the whole Moira thing. I’m sure she knew it was Amélie when she gave us the photos. So I convinced her to come with me to your aid.”

Jack nodded and whispered looking at him. “I’m so glad you are fine. I’m really thankful you made the smart call.” He held Gabriel’s hand giving it a light squeeze, he was still very tired, but he needed to know everything. “What happened to Amélie?”

“I let your police take her. Olivia seems to think there was a lot more to this story, but frankly I’m fine with her just being locked away forever. It’s not a satisfactory resolution, but it’s the fair one, unfortunately. Besides, I was too busy getting you to the hospital to pay much mind to that.”

Jack felt his cheeks blushing the slightest. This affection Gabriel was showing him was still very new, but frankly he had to admit he enjoyed it.

“Gabe?” He whispered, still holding the angel’s hand.

“Yes, Jack?”

“Will you stay on earth with me? Would you like to be… my romantic partner?” He wasn’t sure if the angel would have gotten boyfriend as an idea, and in all honesty he sort of liked referencing that conversation they had had in what it felt like ages ago.

Gabriel leaned in, their foreheads touching as he whispered. “I told you, I’ve fallen for you in more ways than one, Jack. So the only answer I can give you, is yes.” And he kissed Jack, with a soft familiarity the detective didn’t quite think he deserved, but he would take it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I did.  
> All kudos, comments and bookmarks are much appreciated.


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